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| Leonardo DiCaprio and Ben Kingsley in Shutter Island |
Shutter Island is the latest collaboration between Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio - their first since 2006’s excellent The Departed – and is based on the 2003 novel by Dennis Lehane (author of Mystic River and Gone Baby Gone). Set in 1954, Teddy Daniels (DiCaprio) is a US Marshall from Boston, with a dark past. He is sent to the remote Ashecliffe hospital for the criminally insane, on an island off the New England coast where a dangerous patient has escaped. It is his assignment to find her.
There is something very Hitchcockian about the movie and with some deliberately bad continuity and out of place music stings, there is a decidedly spooky feeling throughout. As the tension mounts, he cannot trust anyone; including the mysterious Dr Cawley (Ben Kingsley) or even his detective partner, Chuck Aulo (Mark Ruffalo), who he’s never previously worked with.
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| Mark Ruffalo and Leonardo DiCaprio in Shutter Island |
As the closing scenes come together, the ending - that I had half guessed from the trailer - starts to unravel itself. However, there is more to it then I had imagined, with harrowing and ultimately philosophical conclusions. The book, having not read it, is hard to comment on, yet I can imagine it was not an easy task for screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis who had a complex psychological drama on her hands to adapt.
There is some brilliant imagery – some of the best I have seen from a Scorsese film - particularly in a set of dream sequences, which double as flashbacks and clues to the film’s ending. Within these dreams, there are a lot of powerful images and subject matter, mainly in regards to his dead wife and from his time in the army during World War II.
Shutter Island will not be easily accessible by most as it is not conventionally made and has a running time close to two and a half hours. But it is an intriguing film, which would definitely benefit from a second viewing. With many more plus points than minus points, who needs convention anyway?
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